Trade talks can’t hap­pen yet, says Merkel ally

A key ally of Ger­man chan­cel­lor Angela Merkel has warned Theresa May that Brexit trade talks will not get the green light next month.

Ger­man MEP Man­fred We­ber said it “doesn’t look like” the De­cem­ber sum­mit of European lead­ers will agree to move on to the next phase of ne­go­ti­a­tions.

Mrs May hopes the De­cem­ber 14-15 sum­mit will agree that enough progress has been made on di­vorce is­sues to al­low for trade talks.

But Mr We­ber, pres­i­dent of the cen­tre-right EPP group in the European Par­lia­ment, said “the clock is tick­ing” and the UK had to put for­ward fur­ther pro­pos­als, ad­ding: “In De­cem­ber it doesn’t look like as if we are go­ing to be en­ter­ing into the se­cond phase.”